What could be cuter than the above image of Ryan Reynolds talking to a kitty and a puppy and…a woman’s severed head? Oops. It’s all part of Marjane Satrapi’s directing career.

Satrapi’s Persepolis led the way for the Graphic Novel boom of the Aughts, and she could probably coast along as an ink-slinger for a while, but no, she’s gone celluloid on us, co-directing the award-winning cartoon adaptation of her masterpiece and establishing herself as a “stand alone” director—how stand alone? Her new film, The Voices, stars Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arton and Anna Kendrick in

Surprisingly, the movie was directed by Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-born cartoonist who first earned Hollywood’s attention in 2007 with the very different, Oscar-nominated animated feature Persepolis. Even Satrapi could hardly believe that she pulled off such a blood-drenched film. “I read the script and I said to my producer, we are not going to do anything with gore,” Satrapi said at the post-premiere Q&A. “I don’t like blood, there’s no way I’m gonna do this kind of stuff.” But when it came time to film a scene where Arterton is splashed with blood by a talking deer who asks to have his throat slit (it’s that kind of movie, guys), some sort of switch went off in Satrapi. “I was just completely crazy,” she said. “I was like, ‘MORE BLOOD! MORE BLOOD!’ And I realized that I actually really liked it.”

A poster was just released for the film, which doesn’t have a release date yet.
Unlike Satrapi’s previous three films—Persepolis, Chicken with Plums and The Gang of the Jotas—she did not write The Voices—it’s more of a commercial directing job. (Her L’Association comrade Joann Sfar also has quite an accomplished directing career going in France.) It will be interesting to see if Satrapi can bust through some more glass ceilings in her new career.

One thing she hasn’t conquered: like the Coen Brothers with Inside Llewyn Davis, Satrapi found directing a cat to be a nightmare.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

Simply put: Words and dates have actual, tangible meanings. To say “led” suggests it was the first, when in fact that is provably incorrect. Not that you have ever cared about fact-checking or corrections around here… just plaster the site with “content” and barrel on. Good On ya.

Aside from being incredibly rude, you blow your argument in the first sentence. Persepolisis not a “shitty comic”. So what if it wasn’t translated into English until 2004? Does that mean we discount Moebius and Hergé? Persepolis was and is important, whether you like it or not.

To Robert: 1) Does a comic have to be published in 2000 to start a movement for the decade? I remember GNs not getting a lot of attention until about the publication of the English language version in 2004, along with other notable GNs that year. But Persepolis was the biggest. 2) Your PERSONAL OPINION maybe be that it’s a shitty comic, but many disagree with you, including me. 3) Douglas is right, you’re incredibly rude (and misinformed).

I was going to post, before seeing Robert’s comments that I didn’t like the movie of Persepolis and I hope she has learned more and does better this time around. It certainly sounds like a major stretch for her.

Robert Kramer — actually, the HARDCOVER EDITION of Persepolis The Story of a Childhood (Volume 1) was published by Pantheon in APRIL 2003. Too bad you didn’t remember it came out in hardcover first, Sherlock Holmes.

JImmy Corrigan(and Maus) were indeed pioneers for the acceptance of GNs in the bookstore environment, but it was he success of Persepolis—Published just as we were invading Iraq, don’t forget—among complete NON comics readers that really cemented the format in publisher’s minds.

Of course, you could also say the Manga section at Borders paved the way, too.

BTW, I was covering all of this at Publishers Weekly during this entire period, so maybe I do have a wee bit of back up.

Yeah, I’m going to go with Persepolis (along with Fun Home) leading the way for the GN boom. 1) Persepolis and Fun Home were overwhelmingly read by non-comics readers. 2) Prose publishers began picking up GNs and memoirs like hotcakes after Persepolis and Fun Home.

Ghost World, despite an excellent movie, did not move many copies amongst the general public. Jimmy Corrigan, though acclaimed, is still pretty niche even amongst comics readers– it’s a book for design nerds, not your average non-comics reader. Blankets also didn’t get much traction in the mainstream until after Persepolis and Fun Home.

Despite years on the Internet, I’m still baffled by angry, resentful King Sh#ts who go ballistic over a perfectly innocuous post. You could have tried, “Hey, Heidi, I think you’re off on the pub date and here are some GNs I think came first.”

But no. Your issues, whatever they are, apparently aren’t being addressed in a way that prevents you from exploding into astounding rudeness over an incredibly unimportant issue. Get some help.